'She was dead when she fell in my lap' - An eyewitness account of Benazir's last moments
BENAZIR BHUTTO died instantly, without a groan, a wail or a cry for help. She sank down through the sun-roof of her car - out of which she risen seconds earlier to wave at the milling crowds - directly into the lan of her political secretary, Naheed Khan.
"I was taken aback. Her head in my lap, I thought maybe she was exhausted. I said, "Bibi kya hua, aap uthth kar baithen"(What's happened?Why don't you sit up?) There was no response. Just then, I noticed to my horror that she was bleeding profusely My clothes were drenched in blood," recalled Naheed. "I believe she was dead when she fell in my lap."
Moments earlier she had heard gunshots that sounded to her like firecrackers going off. A close Benazir aide since the latter's exile in London in the 1980s, Naheed is a prime witness to the assassination that shook the world.
Her hitherto unpublished account was shared with the Hindustan Times by Pakistani journalists who met Naheed and her husband Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi in Larkana last Friday According to Naheed, seven people travelled to Liaquat Bagh in a B6 bullet proof Land Cruiser on December 27. The former premier's security incharge, Major Imtiaz sat in front next to the driver, while Naheed and Makhodoom Amin Fahim, now the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) prime ministerial candidate, flanked Benazir on either side, in the middle seat. Dr Abbasi sat in the rear seat next to a security guard.
When Naheed raised an alarm, Abbasi leaned forward to check Benazir's pulse: "My gut reaction as a physician was that she's dead," he said later "I had no courage to tell the others. I told them to pray for her long life."
The Land Cruiser's wheels were blown up in the explosion that followed the gunshots. Benazir had to be lifted into her media advisor Sherry Rehman's car "I could feel she was lifeless. There was no movement in her body," said Naheed. At the Rawalpindi General Hospital, Dr Tassadu, one of the doctors who attended on Benazir told PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babbar that part of her skull had chipped off with brain matter hanging out "I've never seen
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"I was taken aback. Her head in my lap, I thought maybe she was exhausted. I said, "Bibi kya hua, aap uthth kar baithen"(What's happened?Why don't you sit up?) There was no response. Just then, I noticed to my horror that she was bleeding profusely My clothes were drenched in blood," recalled Naheed. "I believe she was dead when she fell in my lap."
Moments earlier she had heard gunshots that sounded to her like firecrackers going off. A close Benazir aide since the latter's exile in London in the 1980s, Naheed is a prime witness to the assassination that shook the world.
Her hitherto unpublished account was shared with the Hindustan Times by Pakistani journalists who met Naheed and her husband Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi in Larkana last Friday According to Naheed, seven people travelled to Liaquat Bagh in a B6 bullet proof Land Cruiser on December 27. The former premier's security incharge, Major Imtiaz sat in front next to the driver, while Naheed and Makhodoom Amin Fahim, now the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) prime ministerial candidate, flanked Benazir on either side, in the middle seat. Dr Abbasi sat in the rear seat next to a security guard.
When Naheed raised an alarm, Abbasi leaned forward to check Benazir's pulse: "My gut reaction as a physician was that she's dead," he said later "I had no courage to tell the others. I told them to pray for her long life."
The Land Cruiser's wheels were blown up in the explosion that followed the gunshots. Benazir had to be lifted into her media advisor Sherry Rehman's car "I could feel she was lifeless. There was no movement in her body," said Naheed. At the Rawalpindi General Hospital, Dr Tassadu, one of the doctors who attended on Benazir told PPP spokesperson Farhatullah Babbar that part of her skull had chipped off with brain matter hanging out "I've never seen
To read the complete story, click here...
To read the complete ePaper, visit: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com
Labels: Benazir Bhutto Assassination, eyewitness account, Liaquat Bagh, new PPP chairman
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